Editing United Development Party (section)

=== Opposition to the New Order ===
[[File:Logo PPP (1973-1982).svg|thumb|right|The party's logo from 1973 to 1985]]
[[File:Logo PPP (1982-1998).svg|thumb|The party's logo from 1982 to 1998]]
[[File:Partai Persatuan Pembangunan Logo.svg|thumb|right|The party's logo from 1998 to 2021 and 2023 to present]]

In the mid-1970s, popular support for Suharto's regime was rapidly waning. When Suharto had seized power with a [[30 September Movement|bloody military coup in 1965]] and ousted President [[Sukarno]], the Islamic groups had supported Suharto and aided in persecuting his political opponents. But as the regime had become corrupt and even more [[authoritarian]], this alliance began to crumble. As the [[1977 Indonesian legislative election|1977 legislative election]] approached, many began to seek other options to vote for aside from the government-backed [[Golkar]].

Worried that the PPP might win the elections, Suharto played on the fears of the people by having the [[Indonesian National Armed Forces|military]] arrest a group of people who claimed to be associated with the Jihad Commando (''Komando Jihad''). With this some people became worried that to vote for the PPP and its Islamic leaning would mean expressing support the Jihad Commando and in a government growing increasingly authoritarian, many simply refused to be associated with the wrong side. Golkar would go on to win the legislative elections with 62% with the PPP coming second with 27% of the votes.

The PPP however, would not sit back and accept defeat. At the 1978 MPR General Session, PPP member [[Chalid Mawardi]] launched a scathing criticism of Suharto's regime. Mawardi accused the Government of being anti-Muslim, complained about the government's violent crackdown of dissent, and alleged that the 1977 legislative election was won because of [[electoral fraud]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Elson |first=Robert |title=Suharto: A Political Biography |year=2001 |publisher=The Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge |location=UK |isbn=0-521-77326-1 |pages=225}}</ref> PPP members also conducted a mass walkout when Suharto referred to religions as "streams of beliefs".

The PPP seemed to have cemented itself a status as the strongest opposition party. It would not last long however. In 1984, NU, under its Chairman, [[Abdurrahman Wahid]] withdrew from the PPP,  severely weakening it. The PPP vote share fell from almost 28% in the 1982 legislative election to 16% in the [[1987 Indonesian legislative election|1987 legislative election]], the PPP was also forced by the government to replace its ideology of Islam with the national ideology of [[Pancasila (politics)|Pancasila]] and to stop using Islamic symbols. As a result, the party replaced its logo showing the [[Kaaba|Kabah]] shrine in [[Mecca]] with a star.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schwarz |first=Adam|title=A Nation in Waiting: Indonesia in the 1990s |year=1994 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |isbn=0-521-77326-1 |pages=172}}</ref> The symbol was identical to the first principle of Pancasila, ''Ketuhanan yang Maha Esa'' (Belief in the One Supreme God).